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Brad Armstrong
Brad Armstrong is the main character of LISA: THE PAINFUL. The game surrounds his journey of sacrifice to save Buddy from the Rando Army by any means necessary. He is constantly hounded by the haunted memories of his broken past, the abuse from his father Marty Armstrong and the suicide of his sister, Lisa. History LISA: THE FIRST Brad is not directly mentioned in LISA: THE FIRST. However, the events have had a profound effect on Brad as he witnessed the abuse of Lisa first-hand, and lives with the guilt and regret of not being able to stop Marty. LISA: THE PAINFUL Before the events of Lisa The RPG and the White Flash, Brad was a drug addict and was a prolific Karate master. He lived with Richard Weeks and his family and had a respectful relationship with them, despite his past. Due to the abuse from Marty Armstrong, he became a Karate instructor possibly to teach others to protect themselves. We can see that he wanted to protect others due to at the beginning of the game, taking a beating for his three friends. To assist further with this, he became the owner of his own Dojo and would go on to train a number of students, including Dusty Armstrong. The game begins years after the White Flash, long after the world has lost all law and women from the planet. Brad finds Buddy alone on the ground and adopts Buddy to protect her from the outside world. LISA: THE JOYFUL The game starts with a flashback of Brad dragging a bag into his house and opening it up in front of Buddy. Inside is a beaten man, and Brad instructs Buddy to kill him with a knife, in order to become numb to the act. Buddy cries at first, but soon straightens up and stabs him. Brad remarks she's done good, however, "Next time he won't be tied up. The game then flashes forward to the end of PAINFUL, where Buddy is being attacked by a mutant Brad. Background Name: Bradley Edwin Armstrong Fighting Art: Armstrong Style (A homebrewed mixture of Karate & pain.) Past Occupation: Martial Arts Instructor Likes: Helping the Youth Favorite Food: Potato Chips Most Hated Thing: Himself A man with a very tough shell, but a weak core. Appearance and Personality Before finding Buddy, Brad sported a beard and afro with a brown poncho. However, due to age and possible stress with protecting Buddy, he began to lose it and by the beginning of the game, had become bald on his crown. Brad is a solemn, quiet and often depressed man, constantly brooding and keeping to himself. He rarely shows much emotion outwardly and is always calm unless under the effects of Joy, but in the end, it is shown to be extremely dedicated to his mission of saving Buddy. Owing to this, others find him boring and arrogant. Despite his hardy appearance and exterior, Brad is shy and speaks very little. In stark contrast to the rest of Olathe, he also has a fairly soft-spoken and courteous personality, though he is not without his eccentricities. Depending on his the player's decisions his tendency towards self-sacrifice may also extend to those aside from Buddy, up to and including the loss of both of his arms. Throughout the game, Brad proves to be extremely straight-laced, serious, and grim, not smiling once throughout the entirety of the game and rarely entertaining distractions except where they serve to further his goal of rescuing Buddy. He engages in activities such as cross dressing, sex work, wrestling and motorcycle races with no appreciation for the strangeness nor the irony of the situations in which he finds himself. This practicality and figurative tunnel vision prove to be the catalyst for much of the game's conflicts; his method of raising Buddy was stifling, suffocating and left her without breathing room to explore herself as a person, ultimately resulting in a young girl with an extreme amount of pent up rage. Prior to finding and subsequently adopting Buddy, Brad lived a drifting, idle and extremely unhappy life. He was unable to place trust in or truly love others due to his own traumatic childhood, with his first ever real bond with another human being with Buddy, something that terrified and bewildered him. He deeply regrets the mistakes he made in how he raised his adoptive daughter, and after saying goodbye to Buddy in a flashback begs for her forgiveness. Throughout his journey, he can be inflicted with injuries, superficial to life-threatening and his body will reflect these changes as a reminder of his past actions. Story The story of Lisa: The RPG begins with Rick, Cheeks and Sticky being beaten up by a group of children over the boys stealing their ball. Brad steps in and lies to the children that he stole the ball to protect his friends, and gets beaten up instead. This may be due to the lack of affection that Marty gave him and that he wants to protect others. Brad proceeds to walk back to his house to be confronted by a drunk Marty watching TV. He has a beer bottle thrown at him and is told to go to his room, a familiar motif to that of the beginning of LISA: THE FIRST. After Brad cries alone in his room, a time skip occurs to after the White Flash to an older Brad taking a drug called Joy. It looks like, from his demeanour that due to his past he carries a large burden and takes this drug to deal with his demons. Brad overhears a baby in the distance and brings it back to his house. He is met by amazement by the guys as there are no women after the White Flash and therefore, no babies. They note that they can give her to Rando to begin repopulating the human race and that they will be given resources in return. Bra, however,r wants to keep Buddy inside to protect her from the outside world, shunning the possibility of repopulation. Brad sees this as a second chance of retribution and to be able to protect someone else and make off for his perceived failure of protecting Lisa from Marty, despite the possible consequences to the human race. The men then commit to raising Buddy themselves, with Brad attempting to quit his Joy addiction. They build a cave underneath the house to raise her in secret. We then see the struggle over many years of them building the cave with Brad slowly balding. The song that plays while we see this montage is 'The Sacrifice', this may just mean the sacrifice of time that Brad is making to raise Buddy, but also sacrificing the future of humanity's remaining members, to give Brad another chance of protecting someone. During this time, however, as Buddy grows up, we see Brad turning to his Joy addiction and alcoholism, shockingly similar to the way Marty acted when raising Brad and Lisa. This seems to be due to, when not taking Joy, he sees the vision of Marty as Lisa did. Taking the Joy makes these visions disappear. It is seen that even as a young adult, Brad keeps Buddy in the basement and when she tried to escape to explore the world, forces her back inside. This shows that, while Brad feels he has the best intentions to protect Buddy from the outside world, he is doing the very same to her as Marty did to Lisa as he sees her crying downstairs, alone. After a while, Brad attempts to quit Joy again and fashions a mask for Buddy, to allow them to explore the outside world after seeing what he is doing to her. Brad then learns to lighten up and allow himself to enjoy life. Buddy puts makeup on Brad and then the other guys, showing that there is more to life than drinking and sitting around all day. That Buddy represents more than just the last female but a vital part of the human race. Despite this, he relapses into drinking and taking Joy, more so than last time. After Brad's binge of Joy and alcohol, he hears a dog bark in the distance and finds Terry Hintz up a tree, fleeing from the dog. After defeating the dog, Terry joins Brad. Walking back to his house, he finds Cheeks dying on the ground. With his last breath, Cheeks tellss Brad that Buddy has been kidnapped. Brad then sets off with Terry, reluctantly, to search for Buddy. Upon entering a door to the Factory Town, Brad will enter a flashback of his past with Rick, seemingly before the White Flash and after Lisa's death. Brad walks in on Rick's masculine Wife, Shelly, greeting each other. She continues on to say Rick should be home soon with very little enthusiasm. After a short while, Rick returns home from what looks like a white collar job. Rick asks Shelly if she has started dinner as he mentioned Brad was coming to visit, she nonchalantly brushes this off and states she hasn't started dinner. Rick ends up covering up for her and orders takeout, showing that Shelly doesn't seem to care about either of them. Rick also asks where his son Junior is, to which Shelly again replies she doesn't care. Upon finishing dinner, his 'son' Junior comes downstairs. Junior is obviously a black male alluding to Shelly cheating on Rick and keeping the child. Junior proceeds to tell Rick "Fuck you old man". and leaves promptly. Shelly also takes her leave to watch TV -- alone. Rick and Brad go outside to speak over a few beers starting small talk over his new lawnmower. Rick gives up and confesses to Brad that he wants a life like him and that his wife hates him and that he knows that his son is a 'whole 'nother story'. He thinks of himself as a joke and that his life is a joke. He admires that Brad has no wife or kids, that he teaches martial arts and that his life is awesome. Suddenly, Brad has a hallucination of Lisa, with her standing inbetween himself and Rick. She says to Brad "Don't forget about me", showing how Rick believed he has it hard, but Brad has scars that will never heal. The hallucination ends with Brad layin infront of the entrance to the Factory Town. LISA: THE JOYFUL |-|Brad (Mutant)= |-|Brad (Hair) = |-|Brad (Holding Joy) = |-|Dad = |-|The Nobody = JOYFUL The game picks up immediately where PAINFUL ended, with a mutant Brad attempting to attack Buddy. It is at this point that the player takes control of Buddy for the first time as she tries to defend herself. Buddy wakes up and begins to fight Brad, but is interrupted by Buzzo before she can land a lethal blow. Buzzo tells her to be careful and takes Brad away. Throughout the game several hallucinations can be seen of Brad in inaccessible places, some of him dead, some of him looking over Buddy. One particular hallucination is of him mourning over Rando's dead body. After defeating Dr. Yado, Buddy hallucinates that she is in a red field covered in flowers. After walking for a bit, she comes across a bloody human Brad, looking as he did at the end of LISA: The Painful. The weapons that were once stuck in him are instead flowers. Talking to him triggers a boss fight. The fight starts out against Brad when he first found Buddy. He does not attack, he only stalls. Once enough damage is dealt with, a conversation triggers between him and Buddy about her name. Brad changes form and becomes much older. This form will also not attack but will restore some health by taking Joy. Enough damage triggers more dialogue, this time about Buddy calling him Dad. Brad's next form is "Dad", his only attack is to hug Buddy, which does no damage. He can also comfort Buddy, restoring health to her. Finally, Brad becomes the failure, the bloody beaten Brad from the end of The Painful. Brad now cries, wails and hits himself, dealing damage. Once he is defeated, he reveals his true feelings towards Buddy and says goodbye before the hallucination ends. Battle Statistics Skills Brad is a Party Member that can use a Combo Dial to use skills, though he can also use them directly from the Skills menu. Brad's combo type is called Armstrong Style. The buttons below can be used in certain combinations to use a normal skill. When used, the above skills will deal individual damage, as well as the damage of the relevant skill (if completed). If Brad loses both arms, he will be unable to use a Combo Dial at all. | class="Content Text" |(WWS) An Armstrong classic. | class="Content" |2 | class="Content" |3 |- | class="Content Text" |Fire Ball | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WSD) A blast of flaming emotion. | class="Content" |5 | class="Content" |10 |- | class="Content Text" |Dropkick | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(DWWA) A flying double foot press | class="Content" |6 | class="Content" |10 |- | class="Content Text" |Suprise Attack | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(DDA) An unsuspected kick to the groin. Causes stunning. | class="Content" |3 | class="Content" |5 |- | class="Content Text" |Machine Gun Fist | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WAWA) Unleash a flurry of punches. | class="Content" |7 | class="Content" |15 |- | class="Content Text" |Horse Stance | class="Content" |Chosen from Skills menu, does not have a dial combo. | class="Content Text" |Assumes a sturdy Horse Stance, increases SP. | class="Content" |8 | class="Content" |0 |- | class="Content Text" |Tackle | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(DDW) An American classic. Capable of knocking the opponent over. | class="Content" |10 | class="Content" |15 |- | class="Content Text" |Fire Ball 2 | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WDD) A blast of flaming emotion. | class="Content" |12 | class="Content" |15 |- | class="Content Text" |Head Slide | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(SDDS) A sliding head strike at the opponent's knees. Causes tripping. | class="Content" |13 | class="Content" |20 |- | class="Content Text" |Headbutt | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WAD) A full force slam with your shiny head. | class="Content" |15 | class="Content" |15 |- | class="Content Text" |Fire Ball 3 | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WSS) A blast of flaming emotion. | class="Content" |18 | class="Content" |20 |- | class="Content Text" |Cannonball | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(DDS) Fly in like a cannonball. | class="Content" |20 | class="Content" |15 |- | class="Content Text" |Fire Ball 4 | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WDAS) A blast of flaming emotion. | class="Content" |22 | class="Content" |25 |- | class="Content Text" |Charging Headbutt | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(WAWS) A flying slam with your shiny head. Capable of stunning. | class="Content" |24 | class="Content" |15 |- | class="Content Text BottomLeft" |Homerun Head Slide | class="Content" | | class="Content Text" |(SDDW) A sliding head strike at the opponent's knees. Causes tripping. | class="Content" |25 | class="Content BottomRight" |20 |} At the end of the game, Brad's class will change from Nobody to Failure. He will unlock several extremely powerful moves used only for the final stretch. Battle Quotes Default Equipment * Weapon: Sweaty Wristbands * Shield: N/A * Head: N/A * Body: Itchy Poncho * Accessory: Dead Flower Art Brad armstrong.png File:7c1436fabbccb5e7f0cff4c72058fd3b4a6463c6_full_550.jpg b17865c234be11a3f7d7d3536efdbf89.png|Unused Brad Sprites f01fa628f82de517b43c96f6200bc9d2.png|Unused Brad Sprites Screen Shot 2018-10-09 at 6.15.30 pm.png|Brad with hair and wearing a poncho that looks like the one worn by Peen Dillies unused2.PNG|Unused Sprite of Brad with hair as a Rando Army member|link=Brad Armstrong Tips Brad is by far one of the strongest characters in the entire game, even when missing two limbs. Despite being fairly weak at the beginning, Brad grows steadily stronger as the game progresses- he gains the ability to stun, mass trip, throw fireballs and deal strong, single-target damage. Brad doesn't, however, have any debuff removers or support abilites, making him entirely damage focused. Brad can be gwellpartnered with anyone, and his large variety of moves allows him to be useful in any situation, despite his Joy addiction. Trivia * If Brad loses both of his arms, he can no longer use Armstrong Style, and the attack that replaces it is Bite. Brad can still use certain skills, however. * Brad had the ability to crawl and hide in bushes in early versions of the game, but these were later scrapped. * Brad was named after a Professional Wrestler of the same name. Brad Armstrong (wrestler), Wikipedia Page. * Brad wanted a wife but didn't think he deserved one. @Dingalinggames did brad ever want a wife? * The Hum heard whenever Brad hallucinates or loses control sounds very similar to the scream attack that joy mutants use. * This same Hum is heard in the previous game LISA THE FIRST, as a sound emited by Marty Armstrong. * Brad is one of the shortest characters in LISA: THE PAINFUL. Shortness is said by Dingaling as something that runs in the Armstrong family. @Dingalinggames Is everyone in Brad's family super short? Marty is obviously tiny and I can't tell with Lisa. * Brad has Italian ancestry.@Dingalinggames are brad and buddy any specific ethnicity? * Brad is Dingaling's favorite protagonist in the LISA series. @Dingalinggames Hi Dingle! If it's alright to ask, who is your favorite protag of the LISA games? Like, Lisa, Brad, or Buddy? * It's implied by one of Brad's hallucinations that Marty forced Brad to rape Lisa or at least watch as Marty did it. * Brad is not the father of Buddy's child. @Dingalinggames A lot of people theorize that the father of Buddy's baby in the "Leave Them" ending is Brad. Can you confirm or deny this? * Brad has really bad teeth. @Dingalinggames how bad are brads teeth * Brad abandoned Dusty because he's fucked. @Dingalinggames Dingaling, Why did Brad abandon and never mentions Dusty? * Brad is a introvert. @Dingalinggames @Dingalinggames Hey did Brad ever tell Buddy about Lisa? Or was she always left in the dark? Asking for a short comic project i'm working on * There are a few unused sprites for Brad. One of them seems to be him slowly turning into a Joy Mutant with his arm horrifically stretched out. * These sprites could also have been from a more cinematic portrayal of Brad's arm getting cut off, due to the look of terror on the first and the look of pain on the second. * Other set of unused sprites were of him giving Buddy a ride on his back. * Austin has stated in a Twitter post that Brad Armstrong was named after his father, Brad Jorgensen. He also inherited his driven and resilient nature from his namesake. * In the "Breeding Ground" achievement epilogue to LISA: the Joyful, it's revealed by Marty that Brad's grandfather taught Brad Karate. * Brad has beady eyes as shown here. * In early development of LISA, images and sprites featuring Brad had the name "Ren" meaning he was originally called Ren. References Category:Characters Category:Party Members Category:Painful Category:Painful Characters Category:Joyful Characters Category:Joy Mutant